Do you remember the details of the last phone conversation you had with your favorite buyer? Do you remember the conversation 2 years ago? How about the customer that bought from you 5 years ago that has just made contact again?

Wouldn't it be great to be able to pull up the details and surprise the contact by not only recounting what she purchased, but also enquiring about the well being of her daughter, Sarah who had just left for college to study law?

In a competitive marketplace, this personal touch and demonstration of knowledge could be what wins you your next big sale. But how could something like this be done?

Human memories vary, but few are good enough to keep such a reliable record of past interactions. However, by maintaining a record of past interactions, you can build up a profile on your customers. Not only will this help you when they make contact with you after time, but you can send them a greeting on their birthday or let them know when you create a new product line that matches something they previously showed interest in.

Maintaining records of your company's interaction with customers is known as "customer relationship management" or CRM, and is a well-developed and sophisticated field, especially for large organizations with a large staff and multiple points of contact with customers. Smaller organizations have it easier, as one or two people can easily share notes or keep a file on each customer.

Most CRM solutions available tend to be complex or only available as an online paid service. To address this, the Trade Hub has created a very simple Excel CRM spreadsheet to help small businesses keep track of conversations with potential and existing customers. The spreadsheet is self-explanatory and contains an example entry. Please download the file, try it out, make improvements and give us your feedback!

If you are looking for something more robust with more features, you could try out www.highrisehq.com .